SOME ANSWER TO IT
Hasty indignation did not drive me to hot action. A quiet talk with
Mrs. Price, as soon as my cousin's bad hour arrived, was quite enough to
bring me back to a sense of my own misgovernment. Moreover, the evening
clouds were darkening for a night of thunder, while the silver Thames
looked nothing more than a leaden pipe down the valleys. Calm words fall
at such times on quick temper like the drip of trees on people who
have been dancing. I shivered, as my spirit fell, to think of my weak
excitement, and poor petulance to a kind, wise friend, a man of many
sorrows and perpetual affliction. And then I recalled what I had
observed, but in my haste forgotten--Lord Castlewood was greatly changed
even in the short time since I had left his house for Shoxford. Pale he
had always been, and his features (calm as they were, and finely cut)
seemed almost bleached by in-door life and continual endurance. But
now they showed worse sign than this--a delicate transparence of faint
color, and a waxen surface, such as I had seen at a time I can not bear
to think of. Also he had tottered forward, while he tried for steadfast
footing, quite as if his worried members were almost worn out at last.
Mrs. Price took me up quite sharply--at least for one of her
well-trained style--when I ventured to ask if she had noticed this,
which made me feel uneasy. “Oh dear, no!” she said, looking up from
the lace-frilled pockets of her silk apron, which appeared to my mind
perhaps a little too smart, and almost of a vulgar tincture; and I think
that she saw in my eyes that much, and was vexed with herself for not
changing it--“oh dear, no, Miss Castlewood! We who know and watch
him should detect any difference of that nature at the moment of its
occurrence. His lordship's health goes vacillating; a little up now,
and then a little down, like a needle that is mounted to show the dip
of compass; and it varies according to the electricity, as well as the
magnetic influence.”
“What doctor told you that?” I asked, seeing in a moment that this
housekeeper was dealing in quotation.
“You are very”--she was going to say “rude,” but knew better when she
saw me waiting for it--“well, you are rather brusque, as we used to call
it abroad, Miss Castlewood; but am I incapable of observing for myself?”
“I never implied that,” was my answer. “I believe that you are most
intelligent, and fit to nurse my cousin, as you are to keep his
house. And what you have said shows the clearness of your memory and
expression.”
“You are very good to speak so,” she answered, recovering her temper
beautifully, but, like a true woman, resolved not to let me know any
thing more about it. “Oh, what a clap of thunder! Are you timid? This
house has been struck three times, they say. It stands so prominently.
It is this that has made my lord look so.”
“Let us hope, then to see him much better to-morrow,” I said, very
bravely, though frightened at heart, being always a coward of thunder.
“What are these storms you get in England compared to the tropical
outbursts? Let us open the window, if you please, and watch it.”
“I hear myself called,” Mrs. Price exclaimed. “I am sorry to leave you,
miss. You know best. But please not to sit by an open window; nothing is
more dangerous.”
“Except a great bunch of steel keys,” I replied; and gazing at her nice
retreating figure, saw it quickened, as a flash of lightning passed,
with the effort of both hands to be quit of something.
The storm was dreadful; and I kept the window shut, but could not help
watching, with a fearful joy, the many-fingered hazy pale vibrations,
the reflections of the levin in the hollow of the land. And sadly I
began to think of Uncle Sam and all his goodness; and how in a storm,
a thousandfold of this, he went down his valley in the torrent of the
waves, and must have been drowned, and perhaps never found again, if he
had not been wearing his leathern apron.
This made me humble, as all great thoughts do, and the sidelong drizzle
in among the heavy rain (from the big drops jostling each other in the
air, and dashing out splashes of difference) gave me an idea of the sort
of thing I was--and how very little more. And feeling rather lonely in
the turn that things had taken, I rang the bell for somebody; and up
came Stixon.
“Lor', miss! Lor', what a burning shame of Prick!--'Prick' we call her,
in our genial moments, hearing as the 'k' is hard in Celtic language;
and all abroad about her husband. My very first saying to you was, not
to be too much okkipied with her. Look at the pinafore on her! Lord be
with me! If his lordship, as caught me, that day of this very same month
fifty years, in the gooseberry bush--”
“To be sure!” I said, knowing that story by heart, together with all its
embellishments; “but things are altered since that day. Nothing can be
more to your credit, I am sure, than to be able to tell such a tale in
the very place where it happened.”
“But, Miss--Miss Erma, I ain't begun to tell it.”
“Because you remember that I am acquainted with it. A thing so
remarkable is not to be forgotten. Now let me ask you a question of
importance; and I beg you, as an old servant of this family, to
answer it carefully and truly. Do you remember any one, either here or
elsewhere, so like my father, Captain Castlewood, as to be taken for
him at first sight, until a difference of expression and of walk was
noticed?”
Mr. Stixon looked at me with some surprise, and then began to think
profoundly, and in doing so he supported his chin with one hand.
“Let me see--like the Captain?” He reflected slowly: “Did I ever see a
gentleman like poor Master George, as was? A gentleman, of course, it
must have been--and a very tall, handsome, straight gentleman, to be
taken anyhow for young Master George. And he must have been very like
him, too, to be taken for him by resemblance. Well then, miss, to the
best of my judgment, I never did see such a gentleman.”
“I don't know whether it was a gentleman or not,” I answered, with
some impatience at his tantalizing slowness; “but he carried his chin
stretched forth--like this.”
For Stixon's own attitude had reminded me of a little point in Jacob
Rigg's description, which otherwise might have escaped me.
“Lor', now, and he carried his chin like that!” resumed the butler, with
an increase of intelligence by no means superfluous. “Why, let me see,
now, let me see. Something do come across my mind when you puts out your
purty chin, miss; but there, it must have been a score of years agone,
or more--perhaps five-and-twenty. What a daft old codger I be getting,
surely! No wonder them new lights puts a bushel over me.”
“No,” I replied; “you are simply showing great power of memory, Stixon.
And now please to tell me, as soon as you can, who it was--a tall man,
remember, and a handsome one, with dark hair, perhaps, or at any rate
dark eyes--who resembled (perhaps not very closely, but still enough to
mislead at a distance) my dear father--Master George, as you call him,
for whose sake you are bound to tell me every thing you know. Now try to
think--do please try your very best, for my sake.”
“That I will, miss; that I will, with all my heart, with all my mind,
with all my soul, and with all my strength, as I used to have to say
with my hands behind my back, afore education were invented. Only please
you to stand with your chin put out, miss, and your profield towards me.
That is what brings it up, and nothing else at all, miss. Only, not to
say a word of any sort to hurry me. A tracherous and a deep thing is the
memory and the remembrance.”
Mr. Stixon's memory was so deep that there seemed to be no bottom to it,
or, at any rate, what lay there took a very long time to get at. And I
waited, with more impatience than hope, the utterance of his researches.
“I got it now; I got it all, miss, clear as any pictur'!” the old man
cried out, at the very moment when I was about to say, “Please to leave
off; I am sure it is too much for you.” “Not a pictur' in all of our
gallery, miss, two-and-fifty of 'em, so clear as I see that there man,
dark as it was, and a heavy wind a-blowing. What you call them things,
miss, if you please, as comes with the sun, like a face upon the water?
Wicked things done again the will of the Lord, and He makes them fade
out afterwards.”
“Perhaps you mean photographs. Is that the word?”
“The very word, and no mistake. A sinful trespass on the works of God,
to tickle the vanity of gals. But he never spread himself abroad like
them. They shows all their ear-rings, and their necks, and smiles. But
he never would have shown his nose, if he could help it, that stormy
night when I come to do my duty. He come into this house without so much
as a 'by your leave' to nobody, and vexed me terrible accordingly. It
was in the old lord's time, you know, miss, a one of the true sort, as
would have things respectful, and knock down any man as soon as look.
And it put me quite upon the touch-and-go, being responsible for all
the footman's works, and a young boy promoted in the face of my opinion,
having my own son worth a dozen of him. This made me look at the nature
of things, miss, and find it on my conscience to be after every body.”
“Yes, Stixon, yes! Now do go on. You must always have been, not only
after, but a very long way after, every body.”
“Miss Erma, if you throw me out, every word goes promiscuous. In a
heffort of the mind like this it is every word, or no word. Now, did
I see him come along the big passage?--a 'currydoor' they call it now,
though no more curry in it than there is door. No, I never seed him come
along the passage, and that made it more reproachful. He come out of
a green-baize door--the very place I can point out to you, and the
selfsame door, miss, though false to the accuracy of the mind that knows
it, by reason of having been covered up red, and all the brass buttons
lost to it in them new-fangled upholsteries. Not that I see him come
through, if you please, but the sway of the door, being double-jointed,
was enough to show legs, had been there. And knowing that my lord's
private room was there, made me put out my legs quite wonderful.”
“Oh, do please to put out your words half as quickly.”
“No, miss, no. I were lissome in those days, though not so very stiff
at this time of speaking, and bound to be guarded in the guidance of the
tongue. And now, miss, I think if you please to hear the rest to-morrow,
I could tell it better.”
A more outrageous idea than this was never presented to me. Even if I
could have tried to wait, this dreadful old man might have made up his
mind not to open his lips in the morning, or, if he would speak, there
might be nothing left to say. His memory was nursed up now, and my only
chance was to keep it so. Therefore I begged him to please to go on, and
no more would I interrupt him. And I longed to be ten years older, so as
not to speak when needless.
“So then, Miss Erma, if I must go on,” resumed the well-coaxed Stixon,
“if my duty to the family driveth me to an 'arrowing subjeck, no words
can more justly tell what come to pass than my language to my wife. She
were alive then, the poor dear hangel, and the mother of seven children,
which made me, by your leave comparing humble roofs with grandeur, a
little stiff to him up stairs, as come in on the top of seven. For I
said to my wife when I went home--sleeping out of the house, you see,
miss, till the Lord was pleased to dissolve matrimony--'Polly,' I
said, when I took home my supper, 'you may take my word for it there is
something queer.' Not another word did I mean to tell her, as behooved
my dooty. Howsoever, no peace was my lot till I made a clean bosom of
it, only putting her first on the Testament, and even that not safe with
most of them. And from that night not a soul has heard a word till it
comes to you, miss. He come striding along, with his face muffled up,
for all the world like a bugglar, and no more heed did he pay to me than
if I was one of the pedestals. But I were in front of him at the door,
and to slip out so was against all orders. So in front of him I stands,
with my hand upon the handles, and meaning to have a word with him, to
know who he was, and such like, and how he comes there, and what he had
been seeking, with the spoons and the forks and the gravies on my mind.
And right I would have been in a court of law (if the lawyers was put
out of it) for my hefforts in that situation. And then, what do you
think he done, miss? So far from entering into any conversation with me,
or hitting at me, like a man--which would have done good to think of--he
send out one hand to the bottom of my vest--as they call it now in all
the best livery tailors--and afore I could reason on it, there I was
a-lying on a star in six colors of marble. When I come to think on it,
it was but a push directed to a part of my system, and not a hit
under the belt, the like of which no Briton would think of delivering.
Nevertheless, there was no differ in what came to me, miss, and my
spirit was roused, as if I had been hit foul by one of the prizemen.
No time to get up, but I let out one foot at his long legs as a' was
slipping through the door, and so nearly did I fetch him over that he
let go his muffle to balance himself with the jamb, and same moment a
strong rush of wind laid bare the whole of his wicked face to me. For a
bad wicked face it was, as ever I did see; whether by reason of the kick
I gave, and a splinter in the shin, or by habit of the mind, a proud and
'aughty and owdacious face, and, as I said to my poor wife, reminded me
a little of our Master George; not in his ordinary aspect, to be sure,
but as Master George might look if he was going to the devil. Pray
excoose me, miss, for bad words, but no good ones will do justice.
And so off he goes, after one look at me on the ground, not worth
considering, with his chin stuck up, as if the air was not good enough
to be breathed perpendiklar like.”
“And of course you followed him,” I exclaimed, perceiving that Stixon
would allow me now to speak. “Without any delay you went after him.”
“Miss Erma, you forget what my dooty was. My dooty was to stay by the
door and make it fast, as custodian of all this mansion. No little
coorosity, or private resentment, could 'a borne me out in doing so. As
an outraged man I was up for rushing out, but as a trusted official, and
responsible head footman, miss--for I were not butler till nine months
after that--my dooty was to put the big bolt in.”
“And you did it, without even looking out to see if he tried to set the
house on fire! Oh, Stixon, I fear that you were frightened.”
“Now, Miss Erma, I calls it ungrateful, after all my hefforts to obleege
you, to put a bad construction upon me. You hurts me, miss, in my
tenderest parts, as I never thought Master George's darter would 'a
doed. But there, they be none of them as they used to be! Master George
would 'a said, if he ever had heard it. 'Stixon, my man, you have acted
for the best, and showed a sound discretion. Stixon,' he would have
said, 'here's a George and Dragon in reward of your gallant conduck.'
Ah, that sort of manliness is died out now.”
This grated at first upon my feelings, because it seemed tainted with
selfishness, and it did not entirely agree with my own recollections
of my father. But still Mr. Stixon must have suffered severely in that
conflict, and to blame him for not showing rashness was to misunderstand
his position. And so, before putting any other questions to him, I felt
in my pocket for a new half sovereign, which I hoped would answer.
Mr. Stixon received it in an absent manner, as if he were still in the
struggle of his story, and too full of duty to be thankful. Yet I
saw that he did not quite realize the truth of a nobly philosophic
proverb--“the half is more than the whole.” Nevertheless, he stowed away
his half, in harmony with a good old English saying.
“Now, when you were able to get up at last,” I inquired, with tender
interest, “what did you see, and what did you do, and what conclusion
did you come to?”
“I came to the conclusion, miss, that I were hurt considerable.
Coorosity on my part were quenched by the way as I had to rub myself.
But a man is a man, and the last thing to complain of is the exercise of
his functions. And when I come round I went off to his lordship, as if
I had heared his bell ring. All of us knew better than to speak till him
beginning, for he were not what they now call 'halfable,' but very much
to the contrary. So he says, 'You door-skulker, what do you want there?'
And I see that he got his hot leg up, certain to fly to bad language.
According, I asked, with my breath in my hand, if he pleased to see any
young man there just now, by reason that such likes had been observated
going out in some direction. But his lordship roared to me to go in
another direction, not fit for young ladies. My old lord was up to every
word of English; but his present lordship is the hopposite extreme.”
“Is that all you have to tell me, Stixon? Did you never see that fearful
man again? Did you never even hear of him?”
“Never, miss, never! And to nobody but you have I ever told all as I
told now. But you seems to be born to hear it all.”